In 1804, Lt. Stephen Decatur led a successful raid into Tripoli Harbor to burn the U.S. Navy frigate Philadelphia, which had fallen into the hands of pirates.

In 1923, the burial chamber of King Tutankhamen's recently unearthed tomb was unsealed in Egypt by English archaeologist Howard Carter.

In 1959, Fidel Castro became premier of Cuba a month and a-half after the overthrow of Fulgencio Batista.

In 1987, John Demjanjuk went on trial in Jerusalem, accused of being "Ivan the Terrible," a guard at the Treblinka Nazi concentration camp. (Demjanjuk was convicted, but the conviction ended up being overturned by the Israeli Supreme Court.)

Ten years ago: Authorities in Noble, Ga., arrested Ray Brent Marsh, who'd been operating a crematory where hundreds of decomposing corpses were found stacked in storage sheds and scattered in the woods behind it.

Five years ago: The Democratic-controlled House issued a symbolic rejection of President George W. Bush's decision to deploy more troops to Iraq, approving the nonbinding resolution by a vote of 246-182.

One year ago: Bookstore chain Borders filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and said it would close nearly a third of its stores.

Thought for Today: "I am content to define history as the past events of which we have knowledge and refrain from worrying about those of which we have none -- until, that is, some archaeologist digs them up." -- Barbara W. Tuchman, American historian (1912-1989).